Comments on: The Last Word on Abbie Smith and Russell Blackford and the Right to Grab Ass at Conferences and All That

By: Gender, Sex, Fat Acceptance and Other Weird Stuff

Gender, Sex, Fat Acceptance and Other Weird Stuff — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:24:02 +0000

[…] of community and decorum an outsider might not expect from a large group of sarong-clad bohemians. But apparently things are bit more tense for atheists:A real, and important, but not earth shattering issue (as in, nobody died) was brought up and was […]

By: eric

eric — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 20:50:17 +0000

M – yes, that is what’s constantly surprising about this issue; Jen’s, Ophelia’s etc opponents aren’t opposing some proposed response to a harasser or harassment incident, they are opposing the idea of having a policy. Nobody has even suggested that outsiders tell convention staff how they ought to respond to particular incidents. This is all blowback from the suggestion that convention-runners should have some sort of policy, details to be determined later by that convention’s staff.

Personally I can’t understand why any con staff would not at least want a policy of documenting incidents and responses. Its as baffling (and not baffling) as Bush cancelling the DSCOVR satellite. Yeah, I get that they might disagree with Jen or Greg about what’s going on. But don’t they want better information about what’s going on? If they really think it’s a non-issue, then they have to think that documentation will demonstrate its a non-issue, right? So why oppose documentation? Unless you (rhetorically) think it will prove you wrong.

By: M

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:01:15 +0000

It seems to me that unless one has tenure, is very close to tenure, or has a guarantee of a job post schooling, one should not support this type of misogynistic environment.
I am on HR committees all of the time, and I read these blogs. I would not in any way want that type of environment to come into my department, since it gives the message that your young women undergrad and grad students could not come to you when they feel uncomfortable or threatened in your lab. Well not without seven forms of evidence, three signed confessions, and any number of other things meant to demean and harass the young women and help keep the young man in his privileged state of mind.

I know that many of these people don’t feel job threatened due to their celebrity.

Although there might be departments that would absolutely relish this kind of environment. Not me though.

By: Didaktylos

Didaktylos — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:05:36 +0000

Alex – a stork who flock with the cranes can expect to have its neck wrung along with the cranes.

By: Jafafa Hots

Jafafa Hots — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 08:31:08 +0000

I wonder what kind of harassment policies our patriotic Republican friends will maintain this August in Tampa

My guess is the policy will be that harassment is not only encouraged, it will feature in the keynote speech and be a crucial part of the party platform.

By: dysomniak

dysomniak — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 07:31:44 +0000

@18 BAAAHAHAHA! 1/10

By: Tyrant of Skepsis

Tyrant of Skepsis — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 06:53:28 +0000

Greg

In 99% of the time people mean 4chan/b/ when they say 4chan, simply because thats the conroversial meme generating part, although there are other topical boards on the site. Kind of like referring to the Netherlands as “Holland” (no comparison intended – go there 🙂

By: Pierce R. Butler

Pierce R. Butler — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:53:55 +0000

Our esteemed host’s attempt to separate distinct controversies tempts the fates to conjoin them.

I wonder what kind of harassment policies our patriotic Republican friends will maintain this August in Tampa (what rules might they institute for public teabagging)?

Then it will be the Dems’ turn to convene in the Deep South (in John Edwards’s state, no less). Will the SecState find it necessary to send her husband on an urgent international mission until the final balloon drop?

By: Doug Alder

Doug Alder — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:35:20 +0000

Well said Greg

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:16:16 +0000

Alex, kiss my ass.

For others who also don’t get it, my run of names is just that … I could throw in “Alex SL” among them and it would still work. They are all in one big … tribe, if you like. I didn’t make that tribe, they did, so if there is an accusation of tribalism to be made, take it up with Richard Dawkins and John Greg and Abbie Smith and whomever.

Alex, you are not welcome to argue any point but the one I”m making, and you are only welcome to argue it on my side. Because that was the last word. There are places you can go to keep up the drumbeat, but not here. This is not your forum, you do not have a second amendment right to write a single word here and never did. I allowed your stupid comment because I felt like verbally slapping you. That is the only reason.

You are dismissed.